Really, don't worry about it in the slightest. Watch 'The Gathering' and then the episodes in the order they come on the DVDs and simply get immersed in the story for the first time. You won't really appreciate the nuances until the second time, anyway so just concentrate on it as presented in the simplest way possible - which is how those of us who watched it in its first run saw it.

Enjoy. I envy you your first two viewings!

Jan

So, there is no need to watch the movies in the order JMS himself advices, between the episodes of the series?
Just out of curiosity, does it make sense the suggestion to watch the season 4 finale as series finale? (no spoilers, of course... just be vague )

....order. If you do not watch the TV movies where they are supposed to go chronologically, keep in mind when watching them where they are supposed to go, i.e. what timeframe they're from.. HOWEVER, watch The Gathering FIRST.

Why? It's not correct and certainly NOT the authorised jms chronological viewing order.

Oh crikey, so they weren't even filmed in either "the original order" or in JMS's order?

This is the correct jms authorised chronological order from the Babylon 5 Historical Database

Crusade Season 1 2267.War Zone 1st Jan - 5th Jan 2267.
The Long Road. 27th Feb - 2nd March 2267.
Appearances and Other Deceits. March 2267
The Memory of War. 30th March - 1st April 2267.
Needs of Earth. April 2267.
Racing the Night. May 2267,
Visitors from Down the Street. 13th May - 14th May 2267
Each Night I Dream of Home. May 2267.
The Path of Sorrows. June 2267.
Ruling from the Tomb. 15th June - 16th June 2267.
Patterns of the Soul. June 2267.
The Well of Forever. July 2267. (Joe confirmed that Mr Jones saying Matheson had sensed the emotions of others, was indeed referring to Durkani and Lyssa from Visitors from Down the Street)
Rules of the Game. July 2267
To The Ends of the Earth 1st September - 3rd September 2267 (Full script but unproduced. Dates from the script)
Value Judgements. September 2267 (Full script but unproduced)
End of the Line. December 2267 (Full script but unproduced)

Oh crikey, so they weren't even filmed in either "the original order" or in JMS's order?

Short answer: yes. This happened quite a lot on B5 -- "Chrysalis" was filmed in the middle of Season 1, for instance.

(Actually, for some time now I've wondered if that was in part because JMS was hedging his bets on Michael O'Hare's health, the way he hedged by filming "Sleeping in Light" at the end of Season 4. But maybe it really was because of all the visual effects necessary.)

In this case in particular, I think that the time needed was correct. JMS said in the script books:

Quote:

“Chrysalis” required new ship designs, the creation of Earthforce One, the Shadow vessel,36 the Shadows themselves, the Io station, the attack on the Narn fleet, and a lot of naturalistic CGI – the hardest kind to produce convincingly – including the DownBelow environments and the Maze, which for me was emblematic of Londo’s life. Each turn of the maze represents a choice he’s made, or is going to make, for good or ill. He’s in the center of that maze, just as he is in the center of his life, when Mr. Morden offers him a direction and a choice, appealing to him as a patriot but also as someone who wants desperately to be recognized, to be important again. Once
he makes that choice, Londo begins a journey that will ultimately take him far from any hope of salvation.

To illustrate just how close we ran to the bleeding edge in terms of delivering these big episodes in time for broadcast...and how things don’t always work out as you plan them...we were frenziedly working on “Chrysalis” until the last possible minute, to make sure it was absolutely flawless. Finally,
exhausted but happy, we delivered the episode the day before it was to be beamed out to the various PTEN stations via satellite feed.

__________________
"You know, I used to think that life was terribly unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair? If all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." ~~Marcus Cole